Tue 17 Feb 2009
Ships That (Don’t Quite) Pass in the Night
Posted by anaglyph under In The News
[12] Comments
Quite a few days ago*, two advanced, state-of-the-art, gadgets-coming-out-of-your-ears, sonar-that-can-detect-a-fly-at-two-miles-in-a-fog nuclear submarines belonging to the British and the French navies, collided in the VAST EMPTY Atlantic ocean.
Collided (in case you missed that). Had a prang, to use an Australian colloquialism. The accepted explanation seems to be that ‘modern anti-sonar technology is so good it is possible neither boat “saw†the other’.
Sometimes it’s just too darn easy to put up an argument for good ol’ low-tech windows.
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*It has, of course, only just now come to the greater world’s attention. I guess that both sides have been deliberating about whether to tell anyone at all (considering that, well, how would we ever know…), but have figured it’s best to spill the beans before it leaks from one or other of the crew, and the video goes viral on YouTube…
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Ack, I read that story and wondered about how they are supposed to be some of the most technically advanced pieces of military crapola out there?
Yup, windows…
If the Titanic had binoculars for their look outs, things would have been a bit different also.
Low tech..live it, love it.
Well, I’m all for hi-tech, but it has to, like, work… otherwise, what’s the goddamn point?
Reminds me of the time I had on Xmas day 2001, 9/11 had just happened and we were ‘all on alert’. In particular our (then) Prime Minister had said publicly that security would be doubled around all Australian military installations in case of ‘terrorist attacks’. Of course no-one believed him…
So there I am sailing down to Port Adelaide on a small boat owned by a local nobleman (his daughter and I are on friendly terms), and what do we spy on the left bank. “Aha” he announces, “That is the production facility for the Collins Class submarines”. Well you could have knocked me down with a feather. There was one of the beasties not twenty metres from our little vessel. No security, not a soul around in fact (it was Xmas day, they were all at home with their families). Just a dodgy wooden wharf with a sign saying “keep off”. If I’d had a spare grenade I would have lobbed it into the conning tower just to prove a point!
Later of course when these supposed ‘silent miracles’ took part in trial maneuvers with the yanks at sea, it was discovered that their engines were so damned noisy they could be heard for miles underwater…
So due to my lack of foresight in carrying around a few spare weapons, Australia has the noisiest and probably the safest submarines in the sea, they only cost around six billion dollars to make.
Lucky for us I guess!
The King
Oh Rev, Windows and naval vessels don’t mix, remember this little cherry:
http://tiny.cc/Lf8gQ
The King
King Willy: >>Australia has the noisiest and probably the safest submarines in the sea, they only cost around six billion dollars to make.
Maybe that was the problem – the surveillance systems of both the French and Brit subs were flooded with noise from one of our submarines… operating in the Bass Strait…
As far as Microsoft and sea vessels goes, who could forget this?
??? Focus, Rev, focus!
They do have windows!
Low-tech ones too – just like the Yorktown!
Sigh. It’s just depressing to think that Micro$oft has control over anything remotely radioactive.
What do you expect from second hand American Tech?
While I agree that nuclear submarines should not run into one another, you should worry more about the ballistic missiles they carry more than anything nuclear. The trouble with reports like this is that the majority of the population cannot differentiate between nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons, which are two very different animals. (Note that I am not stating that you fall into this category, I simply mean in general.) The term ‘nuclear’ scares people because they don’t understand enough about it and watch too many stupid movies.
If people were really worried about radiation, they’d wear more sunscreen. The folks on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier get more radiation from the sun than the folks working in the reactor department do from the reactor.
Ah, how nice of Malach to grace you with his expertise on American Naval vessels. Never mind the fact that neither of these two submarines ever belonged to the United States. Now, if only that were true of Malach…
King Willy: a “spare” grenade? that implies you have a few already but are unwilling to part with them. how many are you stockpiling before you release your spare?
Atlas: Yes, I’m aware of the context of the ‘nuclear’ aspect, but these were nuclear submarines with nuclear missiles (probably). That’s lots of nuclear. I’m no fission-phobe, but I don’t want to end up eating fission chips.
Nurse Myra: King Willy is one of those guys who keeps a bunker out the back of the house filled with weapons and bleach. You know it’s true!